OUR HERITAGE AT RISK - TASMANIA - 2008

Place:   Portside , 1-3 Spring Street, Burnie    

Threat:  Destruction

Photo by:  National Trust of Australia (Tasmania)

Statement of Significance:

The Portside building is an important part of Burnie’s rich modernist influenced architectural inheritance. A twentieth century inheritance that is more cohesive and apparent than that of any other city in Tasmania.

This Inter-war Functional style building was designed by leading Tasmanian architect SWT Blythe and occupies a prominent position on the southern edge of the Burnie CBD. The building and the former Van Dieman’s Land Company cemetery upon which it is built have been listed provisionally by the Tasmanian Heritage Council.

Statement of Risk: 

Degree of Risk:     Immediate risk - no solution agreed

Threats/Risks:      Destruction

Fate/outcome:      Suffering

 Demolition! The Portside building is owned by the Burnie City Council who to-date have refused to consider adaptive reuse of the building as an alternative to the demolition of the building for use as a retail site. The Council’s refusal to consider adaptive re-use was reflected in its exclusion from the options put forward in the study of community opinion on the Portside Building commissioned by them.

Desired Outcome/Vision: 

Suggestions by the Burnie City Council that further reuse of the Portside site is totally  dependent upon demolition of this building ignore widespread precedents for commercially successful adaptive reuse of heritage buildings within and beyond Tasmania.

This is an opportunity for the inspired re-use of the Portside building that both highlights Burnie’s rich architectural heritage and makes a vibrant contribution to the City’s commercial life.

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